The NPD Group has released anoth­er list of the top-sell­ing games for the U.S., this time for the month of Decem­ber. They also revealed the most sold games for the whole year of 2020, with both charts plac­ing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at num­ber one.

It’s typ­i­cal that the year­ly Call of Duty take the top, since a major­i­ty of gamers buy it even if they don’t hard­core the game. The sec­ond high­est title in Decem­ber’s list, was Cyber­punk 2077, despite the issues the game faced at launch. Assas­s­in’s Creed Val­hal­la placed third, fol­lowed by the PS5 exclu­sive Spi­der-Man: Miles Morales. Mad­den NFL 21 round­ed out the top five.

In regards to the best sell­ing hard­ware and acces­sories, the Nin­ten­do Switch was the reign­ing champ for 2020, in terms of units sold and dol­lars gen­er­at­ed. Switch’s annu­al sales were the sec­ond high­est of any plat­form in U.S. his­to­ry, only trail­ing behind the 2008 Wii. 

The PS5 was the sec­ond best-sell­ing con­sole of 2020 in dol­lars, with the PS4 com­ing in sec­ond in terms of units sold. The PS5 set a new record for dol­lar sales for a PlaySta­tion plat­form through December. 

NPD’s report does­n’t men­tion the Xbox Series’ sales at all. Mat Pis­catel­la, a NPD ana­lyst tweet­ed that the sup­ply of the PS5 and Xbox Series S con­soles were con­strained, thus neg­a­tive­ly impact­ing results.

Total dol­lar sales on hard­ware reached $1.35 bil­lion for Decem­ber 2020 (up 38%) and $5.3 bil­lion (up 35%) for the full year. While this did­n’t break any records, it did come close. The last time hard­ware sales were this high was back in Decem­ber 2013 ($1.37 bil­lion), while the full-year sales num­bers were high­est in 2011 ($5.6 billion). 

Total spend­ing in gam­ing was at an all time high — with 2020 reach­ing $56.9 bil­lion, up 27% com­pared to 2019. Decem­ber 2020 alone post­ed $7.7 bil­lion in sales, up 25% from the pre­vi­ous year. 

Acces­so­ry spend­ing reached $546 mil­lion in Decem­ber 2020 (up 15%) and $2.6 bil­lion (up 21%) for the full year. Sony’s DualSense con­troller was a best-sell­er for Decem­ber and the entire­ty of 2020 based on units.

You can check out both Decem­ber’s and 2020’s top-sell­ing games, below:

December 2020 Best-Selling Games 

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  2. Cyber­punk 2077*
  3. Assas­s­in’s Creed Valhalla
  4. Spi­der-Man: Miles Morales 
  5. Mad­den NFL 21
  6. Ani­mal Cross­ing: New Horizons*
  7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe*
  8. NBA 2K21*
  9. Immor­tal: Fenyx Rising
  10. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
  11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
  12. Just Dance 2021
  13. Hyrule War­riors: Age of Calamity*
  14. FIFA 21
  15. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe*
  16. Super Mario Odyssey*
  17. The Leg­end of Zel­da: Breath of the Wild*
  18. Super Mario Party*
  19. Ring Fit Adventure
  20. Mor­tal Kom­bat 11

*- Dig­i­tal sales not included

2020’s Best-Selling Games 

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
  2. Call of Duty: Mod­ern Warfare
  3. Ani­mal Cross­ing: New Horizons*
  4. Mad­den NFL 21
  5. Assas­s­in’s Creed: Valhalla
  6. The Last of Us: Part II
  7. Ghost of Tsushima
  8. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe*
  9. Super Mario 3D All-Stars*
  10. Final Fan­ta­sy VII: Remake
  11. Mar­vel’s Avengers
  12. Spi­der-Man: Miles Morales
  13. NBA 2K21*
  14. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*
  15. FIFA 21
  16. Mor­tal Kom­bat 11
  17. Drag­on Ball Z: Kakarot
  18. MLB The Show 20
  19. Cyber­punk 2077*
  20. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

*- Dig­i­tal sales not included

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